Information processing apparatus and non-transitory computer readable medium storing program

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus includes a processor configured to extract a description including a phrase indicating a relation with a second document element from a first document element, and generate relation information corresponding to information on the description extracted from the first document element, by an AI which has learned, in advance, by machine learning to generate the relation information indicating a relation between the first document element and the second document element from the information on the description.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 fromJapanese Patent Application No. 2019-220565 filed Dec. 5, 2019.

BACKGROUND (i) Technical Field

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus anda non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program.

(ii) Related Art

JP2010-108268A discloses an apparatus that obtains a relation betweendocuments. In the apparatus, a relation-source location extraction unitin a document relation extraction unit selects a document relationextraction rule matching with a document type of a relation sourcedocument stored in a relation-source document storage unit, from adocument relation extraction rule storage unit. The relation-sourcelocation extraction unit extracts a location satisfying arelation-source location extraction condition in the rule, as a relationsource location, from the text of the relation source document. Arelated document search condition generation unit generates a relateddocument search condition from words included in the relation sourcelocation, in accordance with the rule. A related document searching unitsearches for a related document of which the type matches with a relateddocument type defined in the rule and which satisfies a related documentsearch condition in the rule, among related documents stored in therelation-source document storage unit. The related document searchingunit stores a relation between the relation-source document and therelated document, in a document relation storage unit of a storagedevice.

SUMMARY

Determination of whether or not two document elements have a relation,or determination of the type of relation and the like, based on thedegree of similarity between contents (for example, text strings) of thedocument elements is considered.

However, a point that document elements have a relation does notnecessarily mean that the contents of the document elements are similarto each other.

Aspects of non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure relate toan information processing apparatus and a non-transitory computerreadable medium storing a program, that, in a case where two documentelements have a relation, is capable of obtaining the relation even in acase where the contents of the document elements are not similar to eachother.

Aspects of certain non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosureovercome the above disadvantages and/or other disadvantages notdescribed above. However, aspects of the non-limiting embodiments arenot required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and aspectsof the non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure may notovercome any of the disadvantages described above.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided aninformation processing apparatus including a processor configured toextract a description including a phrase indicating a relation with asecond document element from a first document element, and generaterelation information corresponding to information on the descriptionextracted from the first document element, by an AI which has learned,in advance, by machine learning to generate the relation informationindicating a relation between the first document element and the seconddocument element from the information on the description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Exemplary embodiment(s) of the present invention will be described indetail based on the following figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an entire systemincluding a document service system;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document creationoperation in the system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a computeron which the document service system is mounted;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a database constructionand maintenance processing procedure performed by the document servicesystem;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a document;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of a document propertyin a database;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of an element propertyin the database;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating relation information in the database;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an information providingscreen provided by the document service system;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure for generatingthe information providing screen, which is performed by the documentservice system;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating another example of the informationproviding screen provided by the document service system;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating another example of the processingprocedure for generating the information providing screen, which isperformed by the document service system;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating still another example of theinformation providing screen provided by the document service system;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating still another example of theprocessing procedure for generating the information providing screen,which is performed by the document service system;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a graph display providedby the document service system;

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a part of a procedure of notificationprocessing performed by the document service system;

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of a method ofdetermining the type of relation between document elements;

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of a procedure fordetermining the type of relation between the document elements by themethod in FIG. 17;

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating a modification example of the methodof determining the type of relation between the document elements; and

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a procedure fordetermining the type of relation between the document elements by themethod in FIG. 19.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example of Entire System

FIG. 1 illustrates an entire system for using a document, which includesa document service system 100 being an exemplary embodiment of aninformation processing apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment ofthe present invention.

In the example, a document service system 100 is connected to aninternal network 40 in a certain company. One or more documentmanagement systems for managing various internal documents, such as adesign document management system 10 or a company rule management system20, are connected to the internal network 40. A client 30 such as apersonal computer operated by a user is connected to the internalnetwork 40.

Various document management systems such as a law management system 60and an XX standard management system 70 that manages standard documentsof an “XX” technology are provided on the Internet 50. Apparatuses suchas the document service system 100 and a client 30 on the internalnetwork 40 are capable of accessing documents of the document managementsystem on the Internet 50.

In a case where one document related to another document in an internaldocument management system such as the design document managementsystem. 10 is changed, the document service system 100 provides aservice (for example, notifying a concerned person of the change)corresponding to the change of the one document for the anotherdocument.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, a case where a user in a company creates adesign document A of a product, registers the created document in thedesign document management system 10, and maintains the registereddocument is considered. Since the product is required to be designed tosatisfy various laws and various company rules, the design document A isalso created with reference to other documents such as the laws and thecompany rules. For example, the design document A is created withreference to the Road Transport Vehicle Law registered in a law DB 62 ofthe law management system 60 and a completion inspection implementationrule registered in a company rule DB 22 of the company rule managementsystem 20. The law in the law DB 62 and the rule in the company rule DB22 are updated at any time in accordance with the revision.

In a case where the Road Transport Vehicle Law and the completioninspection implementation rule are revised, the content of the designdocument A may be required to be updated, but the update is not alwaysnecessary. For example, in a case where the revised part of the law orthe like is different from the part on which the content of the designdocument A depends, the content of the design document A is not requiredto be updated.

In addition, even though the design document A is created based on acertain part of the law, various methods of depending on the part areprovided. For example, there is a case where a section of the law iscited in the design document A by copying the section itself, and thereis a case where coincidence of terms between the relevant part of thelaw and a part of the design document A can be found just by describingthe part of the design document A while checking the relevant part ofthe law. In the former case, necessity to correct the cited part in thedesign document A by the section of the law being revised is high. Onthe contrary, in the latter case, the degree of necessity for a responseof the design document A to the revision of the relevant part of the lawis lower than the degree of necessity in the former case.

Thus, in the exemplary embodiment, the document service system 100provides a participant of a document, such as a person in charge ofmanaging the design document A, with, for example, a service ofsupporting an operation of determining whether or not the document isrequired to be changed in response to a change of another documentrelated to the above document.

Here, the “document” refers to data in any data format, and the dataformat is not particularly limited. For example, the document may referto data in a text data format or in various document file formats suchas a PDF format. The document may refer to image data in various imagedata formats or a moving image data. The document may refer to data in astructured document format such as a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)format or an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.

In this specification, “a participant” for a document refers to anindividual or a user group involved in maintaining the content of thedocument. The participant may be, for example, a person in charge ofmaintenance of the content of the document, or may have a role of urgingthe person in charge to perform the maintenance. For example, a user whohas created the document or a user who has updated the document is arepresentative example of the participant. A document may be configuredwith a plurality of document elements, and a participant may be set foreach document element.

Example of Hardware Configuration

The document service system 100 is implemented by causing a computer toexecute a program representing a function of the system.

Here, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 3, a computer serving as abase of the document service system 100 has a circuit configuration asfollows, as hardware. In the circuit configuration, a processor 102, amemory (main storage device) 104 such as a random access memory (RAM), acontroller for controlling an auxiliary storage device 106 such as aflash memory, a solid state drive (SSD), and a hard disk drive (HDD), aninterface with various input and output devices 108, and a networkinterface 110 for controlling a connection with a network such as alocal area network are connected to each other via a data transmissionpath such as a bus 112, for example. A program in which the processingcontent of each function of the document service system 100 is describedis installed on the computer via the network or the like, and is storedin the auxiliary storage device 106. Functions of the document servicesystem 100 are realized by the processor 102 executing the programstored in the auxiliary storage device 106 using the memory 104.

In the embodiments above, the term “processor” 102 refers to hardware inabroad sense. Examples of the processor include general processors(e.g., CPU: Central Processing Unit) and dedicated processors (e.g.,GPU: Graphics Processing Unit, ASIC: Application Specific IntegratedCircuit, FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array, and programmable logicdevice).

In the embodiments above, the term “processor” 102 is broad enough toencompass one processor 102 or plural processors 102 in collaborationwhich are located physically apart from each other but may workcooperatively. The order of operations of the processor 102 is notlimited to one described in the embodiments above, and may be changed.

Other apparatuses such as the design document management system 10, thecompany rule management system 20, and the client 30 are also configuredusing a computer as a base, similar to the document service system 100.

Database Construction

An example of database construction processing used for the documentservice system 100 providing a service will be described with referenceto FIGS. 4 to 8. The database is constructed in the auxiliary storagedevice 106 in the document service system 100.

For example, the document service system 100 periodically visitspredetermined document management systems inside and outside a company,such as the design document management system 10, the company rulemanagement system 20, and the law management system 60, so as to acquireand analyze a document group registered in the document managementsystems. In this case, the document service system 100 analyzesinformation of which a notification is made. A procedure illustrated inFIG. 4 shows a process performed when the document service system 100acquires one document from any document management system (S10).

In this case, the processor 102 in the document service system 100analyzes the structure of the acquired document to divide the documentinto document element units (S12). The structure analysis is performed,for example, by processsing of converting a document into an HTMLformat. Various tools for HTML conversion are provided. In S12, a toolappropriate for the file format of the document may be used.Alternatively, the structure analysis may be performed using a knowntechnology of recognizing the structure of a heading, a chapter, asection, a paragraph, or the like from the document content. In a casewhere the acquired document is already a structured document in the XMLformat or the like, the process of S12 may be omitted.

Then, the processor 102 determines whether or not data of a documentidentical to the document acquired in S10 is registered in a database(S14). Here, “identical” does not mean that the entire contents of thedocuments are identical to each other, but that the documents have theidentical identification information. The identification information ofa document is referred to as a document ID. In S14, whether or notinformation on a document having a document ID identical to a documentID of the acquired document is in the database is determined.

As the document ID, for example, a combination of identificationinformation of the document management system (for example, company rulemanagement system 20 or law management system 60) as an acquisitionsource of the document and identification information of the document inthe document management system may be used. For example, a uniformresource locator (URL) of the document in the document management systemmay be used as the document ID of the document.

In a case where the determination result in S14 is No, the documentacquired in S10 is a document that the processor 102 firstly encounters.In this case, the processor 102 registers information on the documentacquired in S10 and information on each document element obtained by thestructure analysis in S12, in the database (S16).

The processor 102 calculates the similarity of the content of eachdocument element with contents of other document elements registered inthe database, and registers the obtained similarity in the database foreach document element (S17). The similarity of the content between thedocument elements may be obtained, for example, in a manner that a textstring included in the document element is vectorized, and similaritybetween the obtained vectors of the document elements is calculated by aknown method (for example, cosine similarity). As a method ofvectorizing the text string of the document element, a known method suchas term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) or doc2vec may beused.

Here, “the other document element” being a partner for obtaining thesimilarity with the document element obtained in S12 is typically adocument element of another document registered in the database.However, the present invention is not limited to the above method, andthe similarity between the document elements obtained in S12 may befurther calculated.

The processor 102 calculates the similarity between the documentacquired in S10 and another document registered in the database, andregisters the similarity of the calculation result in the database(S18). For example, text strings obtained in a manner that text stringsof headings of a chapter and a section in the document obtained by thestructure analysis in S12 are arranged and merged in order of appearingare set as text strings indicating characteristics of the document, andthe text strings are vectorized. The similarity between the vectors ofthe text strings indicating the characteristics of the documentsobtained in this manner is obtained as the similarity between thedocuments. A method of calculating the similarity between documents isnot limited to this. In addition, for example, a tree structureconfigured with document elements (for example, chapters, sections, andparagraphs) in a document may be set as characteristics of the document,and the similarity between the characteristics may be set as thesimilarity between documents.

In a case where the determination result in S14 is Yes, data of thedocument acquired in S10 is registered in the database of the documentservice system 100. In this case, the processor 102 examines whether ornot the document acquired in S10 and each document element obtained inS12 have been changed from the document and document element registeredin the database (S20). In this step, for example, for each documentelement obtained in S12, the processor compares the content of thedocument element (that is, text string) with the content of theidentical document element (that is, document element having theidentical identification information) in the database. In a case whereboth the contents coincide with each other, the processor determinesthat the document elements are not changed. In a case where both thecontents do not coincide with each other, the processor determines thatthe document elements are changed. A case where the document elementidentical to the document element obtained in S12 is not in the databaseor a case where a document element identical to a document element inthe database is not provided in the structure analysis result in S12corresponds to an example of a case where the document element ischanged. A case where any one or more document elements are determinedto be changed refers to a case where the entire document is changed. Acase where there is no document element determined to be changed refersto a case where the entire document is not changed.

The processor 102 determines whether or not the change in the documentor the document element has been detected in S20 (S22). In a case wherethe change has been detected, the processor 102 applies information onthe detected change in the database (S24). For example, in a case wherethe content of a certain document element has been changed, the contentof the document element in the database is updated to the content afterthe change. For a document element of which no change has been detected,the information registered in the database is not required to bechanged. In a case where the change of the document element in thedocument is detected, information such as the update date and time ofthe document in the database is changed.

The processor 102 calculates the similarity of the content between thedocument element of which the change of the content has been detected inS20, and another document element in the database. The processor updatesthe value of the similarity between the document elements, which hasbeen registered in the database, to a value obtained by the calculation(S26). In a case where the document element of which the change of thecontent has been detected in S20 is a new document element which is notin the database, the processor calculates the similarity between the newdocument element and another document element in the database, andregisters the similarity in the database. In a case where deletion ofthe document element which has been in the database is detected in S20,information on the similarity between the deleted document element andanother document element may be deleted from the database. The processof S26 is not performed on the document element of which the change hasnot been detected.

The processor 102 calculates the similarity between the documentacquired in S10 and another document in the database in a manner similarto that in S18. Then, the processor 102 updates the similarity betweenthis document and another document in the database, in accordance withthe calculation result (S28).

An example of information registered in the database in the documentservice system 100 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8.

FIG. 5 illustrates information on a structure analysis result of twodocuments 200 and 210 registered in the database by HTML. The document200 has an H1 element (for example, title of the document) as a childdocument element (referred to as a child element below), and the H1element has two H2 elements as child elements. The H2 elements have twoH3 elements and one H3 element, as a child element, respectively. Asdescribed above, structure information on the document 200 isrepresented by a tree structure illustrated in FIG. 5. Uniqueidentification information is assigned to the document and each documentelement. Data representing the tree structure illustrated in FIG. 5 isregistered, as the structure information on the document, in thedatabase in association with the identification information of thedocument.

Property data (referred to as “document property”) for each of thedocuments 200 and 210 and property data (referred to as “elementproperty”) for each document element are registered in the database.

The similarity between the document 200 and the document 210 iscalculated and registered in the database. The similarity of the contentbetween the document elements is calculated and registered in thedatabase.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a data structure of the documentproperty registered in the database. The document property of thedocument illustrated in FIG. 6 includes items such as a document ID, adocument name, a document characteristic, a creator, the creation dateand time, the last updater, the update date and time, the acquisitiondate and time, and a storage location of the document. The document nameis, for example, a filename of the document. The document characteristicrefers to data indicating the characteristics of the document. Forexample, as described above, a text string obtained by arranging andmerging text strings of headings of a chapter and a section in thedocument in order of appearing is provided as an example of the documentcharacteristic. The resultant obtained by vectorizing the text stringmay be used as the document characteristic. The creator indicates theuser ID of a user who has firstly created the document, and the creationdate and time indicate the date and time of creation. The last updaterindicates the user ID of a user who has updated the document last, andthe update date and time indicate the date and time of the update. Thetypes of information on the creator, the creation date and time, thelast updater, and the update date and time may be acquired fromattribute data of the file of the document, for example. The acquisitiondate and time indicate the date and time on which the processor 102 hasacquired the document last from the document management system such asthe company rule management system 20 or the law management system 60.The storage location refers to information of specifying the documentmanagement system in which the document has been originally stored (forexample, URL of the document management system).

In S18 and S26 in the procedure of FIG. 4 described above, suchinformation on the document property and information on the treestructure of the document obtained in S12 are registered in thedatabase.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a data structure of the elementproperty registered in the database. The element property of thedocument element illustrated in FIG. 7 include items such as an elementID, an element name, an element content, a content characteristic, acreator, the creation date and time, the last updater, the update dateand time, the acquisition date and time, and a storage location of thedocument element. The element ID refers to identification information ofthe document element. For example, a set of a document ID of a documentincluding the document element and a number uniquely assigned to thedocument element in the document may be used as the element ID. Theelement name refers to the name of the document element. For example, ina case where the document element includes a heading, the heading may beused as the element name. In a case where the document element does notinclude the heading, a text string having a predetermined number ofcharacters at the head of the document element may be used as theelement name. The element content refers to data of the content of thedocument element. For example, in a case where the document element is atext, the element content is a text string of the text. The elementcharacteristic refers to data indicating the characteristic of thedocument element, and is obtained by vectorizing the text string of thedocument element described above, for example. The creator indicates theuser ID of a user who has firstly created the document, and the creationdate and time indicate the date and time of creation. In a case wherethe original document file (or the document management system thatmanages the original document file) has information on the creator orthe creation date and time for each document element, the information isregistered in the item of the creator or the creation date and time inthe element property. In a normal case where the file of the originaldocument has only the creator and the creation date and time in adocument unit, the creator and the creation date and time of thedocument are registered in the creator and the creation date and time ofthe document element included in the document in the element property.

The last updater indicates the user ID of a user who has updated thedocument element last, and the update date and time indicate the dateand time of the update. In a case where the original document file (orthe document management system that manages the original document file)has information on the last updater or the update date and time for eachdocument element, the information is registered in the item of the lastupdater or the update date and time in the element property. In a normalcase where the file of the original document has only the last updaterand the update date and time in a document unit, values of the lastupdater and the update date and time of the document when the change ofthe content of the document element is detected are registered in theitems of the last updater and the update date and time of the documentelement included in the document in the element property. Whether or notthe content of the document element has been changed is determined bycomparing the element content or the content characteristic of thedocument element obtained in S12 with the element content or the contentcharacteristic of the document element in the database having theidentical element ID.

The acquisition date and time refers to the date and time on which theprocessor 102 has acquired the document element last. The acquisitiondate and time is identical to the acquisition date and time of thedocument including the document element. The storage location refers toinformation of specifying the document management system in which thedocument element has been originally stored, and is identical to thestorage location of the document including the document element.

In S16 of the procedure of FIG. 4 described above, information on eachitem of such element property is registered in the database. In S24, theprocessor updates the value of each item of the element property of thedocument element of which the change has been detected, to a valuecorresponding to the content of the change.

In a case where the document is acquired from an external documentmanagement system (for example, document management system outside theinternal network 40), acquiring information on all items of the documentproperty and the element property illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 for theabove document may not be possible. Such an item is set to a null value,or a value obtained by the document service system 100 based on anothertype of information is set. For example, for a document acquired fromthe law management system 60, difficulty in obtaining information on thecreator, the creation date and time, the last updater, and the updatedate and time from the document or the law management system 60 isconsidered. In this case, the items of the creator, the creation dateand time, and the last updater may be set to null values. In a casewhere the change of the document element in the acquired document hasbeen detected in S20 of the procedure in FIG. 4, the document servicesystem 100 may set the date and time of the acquisition to the updatedate and time of the document element and the document.

The item group of the document property and the element propertyillustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 are only examples. The document propertyand the element property are not required to include all of theillustrated items, and may include items that are not illustrated.

FIG. 8 illustrates relation information between document elementsregistered in the database. The relation information illustrated in FIG.8 is associated with a pair of element IDs of two document elements. Therelation information includes a value of the similarity of the contentbetween the two document elements and the type of relation between thedocument elements, which is determined from the value. In the example,the types of relation between document elements are classified intoseveral types in accordance with the magnitude of the similarity of thecontent between the document elements. For example, in a case where thesimilarity of the content between the document elements is equal to orgreater than 0.95 (that is, 95%), the type of relation between thedocument elements is named “citation”. The type of relation in a casewhere the similarity of the content between the document elements isequal to or greater than 0.80 and smaller than 0.95 is named “similar”.In a case where the similarity is equal to or greater than 0.60 andsmaller than 0.80, the type of relation is named “reference”. Ina casewhere the similarity is smaller than 0.60, the two document elements aredetermined to be unrelated.

Although not illustrated in FIG. 8, the date and time on which thesimilarity or the type of relation is determined may be furtherregistered in the relation information.

In S17 and S26 in the procedure of FIG. 4, the similarity between thedocument elements and the type of the relation corresponding to thesimilarity are determined, and the values are registered in the relationinformation illustrated in FIG. 8.

The relation information illustrated in FIG. 8 is merely an example. Asthe relation information, information that includes similarity but doesnot include the type of relation may be used, and conversely,information that does not include similarity but includes the type ofrelation may be used.

Services Provided by Document Service System

An example of a service provided by the document service system 100using the constructed database will be described.

FIG. 9 illustrates an information providing screen 300 provided by thedocument service system 100 to the user. The information providingscreen 300 provides information on document elements 332 and 342 relatedto changed document elements 322 and 324 among documents 320 designatedby a user. The information is provided in a form of a graph 310 of arelation between the document 320 and the document elements 322, 324,332, and 342.

All document elements related to the changed document elements 322 and324 are not displayed on the information providing screen 300, but onlya document element of which the user is a participant (for example,person who has created or updated the document element) is displayed.For the document element of which the user is a participant, the user isexpected to perform a change operation in response to the change of thedocument elements 322 and 324. Thus, the user is provided with theinformation on the document element. On the contrary, for the documentelement of which the user is not the participant, a possibility that theuser does not perform a corresponding operation such as correction eventhough the information is provided to the user is high. Thus, providingthe information is not performed.

Here, an example in which a creator or an updater included in theelement property of the document element is provided as the participantof the document element is described. In addition, a user or a usergroup having an edit authority for the document element or a documentincluding the document element may be set as the participant of thedocument element.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, a document designated by the useris a document having a document name of “service quality assuranceguide”. In the document, a document element 322 having an element nameof “Regulation 7” and a document element 324 having an element name of“Regulation 11” are detected as the changed document elements. Whetheror not the document element has been changed may be determined based on,for example, whether or not the document element is updated within aperiod that goes back by a predetermined length (for example, one month)from the current time. That is, in a case where the last update date andtime of the document element is within the period, “the document elementhas been changed” is determined. In a case where the last update dateand time is before the period, “the document element has not beenchanged” is determined. The length of the period may be designated bythe user. The user may be able to designate both the start and end ofthe period. A designation field of “period” at the lower right portionof the information providing screen 300 is used for designation of theuser.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, a document element 332 having arelation of “reference” to the changed document element 322 is provided.The document element 332 is a document element belonging to a document330 having a document name of “family operating environment.docx” andhas an element name of “3. operation specification”. A document element342 having a relation of “reference” to the changed document element 324is provided. The document element 342 is a document element belonging toa document 340 having a document name of “quality check resultreport.xlsx” and has an element name of “2. implementation target”.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, document elements 326 and 328having a relation of “similar” to each other are shown in a documentelement group of the document 320.

The graph 310 shows a node group indicating the documents 320, 330, and340, a node group indicating document elements 322 to 328, 332, and 342,and an edge group indicating a relation between the nodes. A text stringindicating the type of relation indicated by an edge is displayed neareach edge. For example, a text string of “reference” is shown at an edgeindicating the relation between the document elements 322 and 332. Atext string of “similar” is shown at an edge indicating the relationbetween the document elements 326 and 328. For example, a text string of“parent” is shown at an arrow-like edge extending from the documentelement 322 to the document 320. This indicates that the document 320 isa parent in the tree structure as viewed from the document element 322.

In the graph 310, the nodes of the changed document 320 and the changeddocument elements 322 and 324 are highlighted in a special display formindicating that the change has been performed.

The document elements 332 and 342 related to the changed documentelements 322 and 324 and the nodes of the documents 330 and 340 that arethe parents of the document elements 332 and 342 are also highlighted inanother display form. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, the relationbetween the document elements 322 and 332 and the relation between thedocument elements 324 and 342 are both “reference”. Thus, thehighlighted display forms of the document element 332 and the documentelement 342 are identical to each other. On the contrary, in a casewhere the two types of relation are different from each other, thehighlighted display forms of the document element 332 and the documentelement 342 are different from each other. For example, as illustratedin FIG. 13 described later, a node of the document element 352 having arelation of “citation” to the changed document element 324 is displayedin a display form which is more prominent than that for the “reference”relation. Since the similarity of the content between the two documentelements is much higher in “citation” than in “reference”, the necessityto correct the content in response to the changed document element isconsidered to be much higher in “citation”.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a processing procedure of creating theinformation providing screen 300 illustrated in FIG. 9.

In the procedure of FIG. 10, the processor 102 of the document servicesystem 100 provides an input screen for inputting search conditions andthe like to the client 30 in a form of a web page, for example. Theprocessor receives the input of the search conditions and the like fromthe user (S30). The processor 102 searches the database for a documentthat satisfies the input search condition (S32). The processor providesthe client 30 with a screen showing a list of documents as the searchresult, and receives the selection of the interested document from theuser (S34). FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a case where the userselects the document 320 “service quality assurance guide” as aninterested document.

The processor 102 examines the element property of each document elementbelonging to the interested document selected by the user, to specifythe document element which has been changed within a predeterminedperiod and determine whether there is a changed document element (S36).In a case where there is no changed document element in the interesteddocument, the processor 102 generates a screen indicating that there isno changed document element in the interested document, and causes theclient 30 to display the screen (S38).

In a case where the determination result in S36 is Yes, the processor102 obtains a document element related to the specified changed documentelement from the relation information in the database (see FIG. 8). Theprocessor extracts a document element of which the user is a participantamong the obtained document elements (S40). The extraction may beperformed with reference to the element property of the obtaineddocument element. The processor 102 generates a graph 310 indicating therelation between a set of the changed document element obtained in S36and the document to which the obtained document element belongs, and aset of the document element extracted in S40 and the document to whichthe extracted document element belongs. Then, an information providingscreen 300 including the graph 310 is provided to the client 30 (S42).The processor 102 determines the display mode of the node for eachdocument element to be displayed on the graph 310, in accordance withwhether or not the document element is changed, or the type of relationbetween this document element and the changed document element.

FIG. 11 illustrates another example of the information providing screen300 provided by the document service system 100 to the user.

In the graph 310 illustrated in FIG. 11, among the document elements 332and 342 of which users are participants and which are related to thechanged document elements 322 and 324 in the interested document 320,the document element 332 of which the content is not changed after thechange of the document elements 322 and 324 is highlighted. On thecontrary, the content of the document element 342 related to the changeddocument element 324 has been changed after the change of the documentelement 324, and thus the document element 342 is not highlighted.

In a case where the document element 322 is changed, whether thedocument element related to the document element 322 is required to bechanged is checked. In a case where the document element is required tobe changed, the change is performed on the document element. Thus, theuser is urged to check a document element by highlighting the unchangeddocument element among document elements related to the changed documentelement.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a processing procedure of creating theinformation providing screen 300 illustrated in FIG. 11. In theprocedure of FIG. 12, steps of performing the similar processing to theprocedure of FIG. 10 are denoted by the identical reference signs, anddescription thereof will be omitted.

In the procedure of FIG. 12, the processor 102 determines whether or notthe document element extracted in S40 is changed after the correspondingchanged document element has been changed (S50). For example, in a casewhere the last update date and time of the document element as adetermination target is later than the last update date and time of thecorresponding changed document element, the change is determined, inS50, to be completed, and otherwise the document element is determined,in S50, not to be changed. In the example of FIG. 10, since the lastupdate date and time of the document element 332 is earlier than thelast update date and time of the corresponding changed document element322, the document element 332 is determined not to be changed.

The processor 102 generates the graph 310 and highlights the node of thedocument element determined, in S50, not to be changed in the graph 310in a special display form for a notification indicating that thedocument element is not changed. Then, the information providing screen300 including the graph 310 is provided to the client 30 (S42A).

The user selects the changed document element 322 and the node of thedocument element 332 which has been highlighted and not changed, on theinformation providing screen 300 displayed in the client 30. Inresponse, the processor 102 of the document service system 100 providesthe client 30 with a screen of displaying the latest content of theselected document element. The user checks the content of each documentelement on the screen, and determines whether the content of thedocument element 332 is required to be changed. In a case where thechange of the document element 332 is determined to be required, theuser performs a required change of the content of the document element332. In response to the change, the processor 102 changes the elementcontent or the content characteristic of the element property (see FIG.7) of the document element 332 in the database. The processor 102accesses the document management system that manages the document towhich the document element 332 belongs, using the information on thestorage location in the element property. The processor applies thechange to a part corresponding to the document element 332 in theoriginal document.

After a document element has been changed, the user may check whether adocument element related to the changed document element is changed inresponse to the change. As a result, the user may determine that thechange is not required. In this case, although the content of the latterdocument element has not been changed, the required check has alreadybeen completed. Thus, in a case where the highlight is displayed on thegraph 310, the user is required to perform the useless check. Therefore,the processor 102 of the document service system 100 not only receivesthe edit of the content on the screen of displaying the content of theselected document element on the information providing screen 300, butalso receives the designation of whether or not the content is checked.In a case where the designation that the check from the user isperformed is made, the last update date and time of the document elementis changed to the designated time. Thus, a situation in which thedocument element is highlighted to display being not changed on thesubsequent information providing screen 300 does not occur.

FIG. 13 illustrates still another example of the information providingscreen 300 provided by the document service system 100 to the user.

In the graph 310 illustrated in FIG. 13, in addition to the node groupillustrated in FIG. 9, nodes of another document element 352 of whichthe user is a participant and which is related to the changed documentelement 322 and a document 350 (document name “functionalspecification.xlsx”) being the parent of the document element 352 aredisplayed. The document element 352 has a relation of “citation” to thechanged document element 324. That is, the content of the documentelement 352 is identical or very close to the content of the documentelement 324. Although the other document elements 342 also has arelation with the identical document element 324, the relation is“reference” in which the similarity of the content between the documentelements is much lower than “citation”. For this reason, the node of thedocument element 352 is highlighted in a display form indicating therelation of “citation”, and the display form is more conspicuous thanthe display form indicating the relation of “reference”.

In this example, in a case where the document service system 100 detectsthe document element 352 having a relation of “citation” to the changeddocument element 322, the document service system 100 updates thecontent of the document element 352 to match with the content of thechanged document element 322. That is, for example, the content of thechanged document element 322 is overwritten on the document element 352.

The update is performed on the element content (see FIG. 7) of thedocument element 352 in the database of the document service system 100.The similar update is performed on original data of the document 350 inthe document management system (not illustrated) that manages thedocument 350 including the document element 352.

The update may be automatically performed by the document service system100 without waiting for the check of the user. As another example, theuser is required to check whether or not the update is performed. In acase where an instruction to perform update is obtained from the user,the document service system 100 may perform the update.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a processing procedure of the documentservice system 100 in the example of FIG. 13. In the procedure of FIG.12, steps of performing the similar processing to the procedure of FIG.10 are denoted by the identical reference signs, and description thereofwill be omitted.

In the procedure of FIG. 14, the processor 102 examines whether or not adocument element (referred to as a target element) having a relation of“citation” to the changed document element (referred to as a changedelement) is provided among document elements extracted in S40. In a casewhere the target element is provided, the processor updates the elementcontent of the target element in the database in the document servicesystem 100 and the document in the document management system thatmanages the document including the target element, so as to match withthe changed content of the changed element (S55). With this update, thecontent characteristic, the last updater, the update date and time, andthe like of the element property of the target element in the databaseand the document characteristic, the last updater, the update date andtime, and the like of the document property (see FIG. 6) of the documentincluding the target element are also updated.

The processor 102 provides the client 30 with a screen for inquiringwhether or not to update the target element. In a case where aninstruction to perform the update is made on the screen by the user, S55may be performed. In a case where an instruction indicating that theupdate is not performed is input from the user on the screen, theprocessor 102 does not perform S55.

The processor 102 generates the graph 310, and highlights the node ofthe document element having a relation of “citation” to the changeddocument element in the graph 310, in a special display form indicating“citation”. Then, the processor provides the client 30 with theinformation providing screen 300 including the graph 310 (S42B).

In the above description, the three examples of the informationproviding screen 300, which are illustrated in FIGS. 9, 11, and 13 areseparately described. However, the display control in the three examplesmay be combined. For example, a document element having a relation to achanged document element is displayed in a display form corresponding tothe type of relation, and, in a case where the latter document elementis not changed after the former has been changed, the highlightindicating that the document element is not changed is added to thelatter.

FIG. 15 illustrates another example of the graph 310 in the informationproviding screen 300 provided by the document service system 100 to theuser.

The graph 310 illustrated in FIG. 15 is obtained by adding a documentelement 334 and nodes of document elements A, B, C, D, X, and Y to thegraph 310 illustrated in FIG. 9 and changing the relation between thedocument elements 322 and 334 from “reference” to “similar”. Asdescribed above, “similar” has a higher similarity of the contentbetween the document elements than the similarity for “reference”.

The document element 334 (element name “4. operating environment”) is adocument element in the document 330, and has a relation of “citation”to the changed document element 322 in the document 320. The documentelements A, B, and C have a relation of “citation”, “similar”, and“reference” to the document element 334, respectively. The documentelement D has a relation of “citation” to the document element A.

The document elements X and Y have a relation of “citation” and“similar” to the document element 332, respectively.

As described above, the document elements A, B, C, D, X, and Y which donot have a direct relation to the changed document element 322 are alsodisplayed on the graph 310 of FIG. 15. The display control of thedocument element which does not have a direct relation to the changeddocument element will be described below.

Here, in the following description, a changed document element in adocument designated by the user is referred to as a changed element, anda document element having a direct relation to the changed element isreferred to as a primary element. An element having a relation to theprimary element is referred to as a secondary element, and a documentelement having a relation to the secondary element is referred to as atertiary element. In the example of FIG. 15, the document elements 322and 324 are changed elements, and the document elements 332, 334 and 342are primary elements. The document elements A, B, C, X, and Y aresecondary elements, and the document element D is a tertiary element.The secondary and tertiary elements do not have a direct relation to thechanged element. In the following description, a relation between thechanged element and the primary element is referred to as a primaryrelation. A relation between the primary element and the secondaryelement is referred to as a secondary relation. A relation between thesecondary element and the tertiary element is referred to as a tertiaryrelation. In general, the relation between the (n−1)-th ordered elementand the n-th ordered element is an n-ordered relation (n is an integerof 1 or more). However, in this case, the changed element is azero-order element.

First, the processor 102 of the document service system 100 restrictsthe types of secondary relations to be included in the graph 310, thatis, to be displayed, in accordance with the type of the correspondingprimary relation. That is, as the type of the primary relation becomes“stronger”, the number of the types of the corresponding secondaryrelations included in the graph 310 are increased. The “weaker” relationis harder to be included in the graph 310. The primary relation isincluded in the graph 310 regardless of the type, but, regarding thesecondary relation, only the type restricted in accordance with the typeof the corresponding primary relation is included in the graph 310. Inthe three types of relations exemplified above, “citation”, “similar”,and “reference”, “citation” is the strongest, the next is “similar”, andthe weakest is “reference”. The strength relation reflects the magnituderelation of the content similarity between the document elements formingthe respective types of relations.

In the example of FIG. 15, in a case where the primary relation is“citation”, all three types of secondary relations are displayed. In acase where the primary relation is “similar”, only two types ofsecondary relations of “citation” and “similar” are displayed. In a casewhere the primary relation is “reference”, only one type of secondaryrelation “citation” is displayed.

For example, regarding the primary element 334 having a primary relationof “citation” to the changed element 322, all types of secondaryrelations “citation” (that is, relation to the secondary element A),“similarity” (that is, relation to the secondary element B), and“reference” (that is, relation to the secondary element C) aredisplayed.

On the other hand, regarding the primary element 332 having a primaryrelation of “similar” to the changed element 322, only two types ofsecondary relations “citation” (that is, relation to the secondaryelement X) and “similar” (that is, relation to the secondary element Y)are displayed. Even though there is a secondary element having asecondary relation of the type “reference” to the primary element 332,the secondary relation and the secondary element are not displayed onthe graph 310.

Regarding the primary element 342 having a primary relation of“reference” to the changed element 324, the secondary relation and thesecondary element are not displayed on the graph 310. For the primaryelement having the primary relation of “reference” to the changedelement, the secondary relation of the type “citation” being thestrongest may be displayed. However, in the example of FIG. 15, thesecondary element having a secondary relation of “citation” to theprimary element 342 is not provided. Thus, such a secondary element isnot displayed. Even though the secondary element having a relation of“similar” or “reference” to the primary element 342 is provided, thissecondary element is not displayed on the graph 310.

The processor 102 may determine the upper limit value of n of the n-thordered relation included in the graph 310, in accordance with the typeof the primary relation.

In the example of FIG. 15, regarding a relation extending from theprimary relation of “citation” between the document elements 322 and334, the relation up to the third order in maximum is included in thegraph 310. On the contrary, regarding a relation extending from theprimary relation of “similar” weaker than “citation”, the relation isincluded in the graph 310 only up to the second order. Since the primaryrelation between the document elements 322 and 332 is “similar”, eventhough a tertiary element having a strong tertiary relation such as“citation” to the secondary element X related to the primary element 332is provided, the tertiary relation and the tertiary element are notdisplayed on the graph 310.

In the example of FIG. 15, even though a document element is related tothe changed document element in the document searched in S32, thedocument element included in the identical document (that is, searcheddocument) to a document of the changed document element is not displayedon the graph 310 provided for the user. This is because the user doesnot normally have an edit authority for the searched document or thedocument element in the searched document. However, for each documentelement related to the changed document element, whether or not the userhas an edit authority is checked. In a case where the user has the editauthority, even the document element in the identical document to thedocument for the changed document element may be displayed on the graph310.

Another Example of Service

In the example described above, the document service system 100 simplyrecords the change of the document element in the database at a timepoint at which the document service system detects the change of thedocument element.

Information on the change is provided to the user at a time point atwhich the user designates a document including the document element, andthe information providing screen 300 for the document is provided to theuser in response to the designation.

As another example of this, processing of notifying a participant ofanother document element having a relation to a document element in acase where the document service system 100 detects that the content ofthe document element has been changed will be described below.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of the procedure of this processing. Theprocedure of FIG. 16 illustrates a group of steps following S28 in theprocedure illustrated in FIG. 4.

In the procedure of FIG. 16, in a case where the processor 102 detectsthe changed document element in S22 (see FIG. 4), the processor 102extracts a document element group having a relation to the changeddocument element from relation information (see FIG. 8) in the database(S60). The processor 102 obtains information on a participant of thedocument element from the database for each extracted document elementand notifies the participant of the change in a notification methodcorresponding to the type of relation (S62). A plurality of methods, forexample, as follows are provided as a method of notifying theparticipant: a method of displaying the notification in a notificationfield on a portal page displayed in a case where the participant logsinto the document service system 100; a method of display a message forcausing the change to be known, on a screen such as the informationproviding screen 300 provided to the participant by the document servicesystem 100 in a form of a pop-up screen; and a method of transmitting ane-mail to an e-mail address of the participant, which has beenregistered in the document service system 100 by the participant. Thenotification field is not displayed so long as the participant does notlog into the document service system 100. However, the notification bye-mail reaches the participant even in a period in which the participantdoes not log into the document service system 100. Thus, the e-mail ismore noticeable to the participant. In S62, the notification isperformed by a method which is more noticeable to the participant as thetype of the relation is stronger. For example, in a case where the typeof the relation is “reference” and “similar”, only display in thenotification field on the portal page of the participant is performed.However, in a case where the type of the relation is “citation” beingstronger than others, the participant is notified by e-mail in additionto the display into the notification field.

The exemplary embodiment described above are merely exemplary, andvarious modifications may be made within the scope of the presentdisclosure.

For example, in the exemplary embodiment, the type of the relationbetween the document elements is determined in accordance with thesimilarity of the content between the document elements, but this isjust an example.

For example, a user who has created or updated a document element mayregister another document element having a relation with the documentelement and the type of the relation in the document service system 100.

A device that provides a user with a function of editing a document (forexample, a document editing application provided by the client 30) maydetermine a relation between document elements in accordance with anoperation performed by the user while the user is editing a documentelement, and the device may register the determined relation in thedocument service system 100. For example, in a case where the usercopies a document element a in a document A opened on a screen of thedevice to a document element b in another document B opened on thescreen by a copy and paste operation, the device determines that thedocument element b has the type of relation of “citation” to thedocument element a. Then, the device registers the relation of“citation” in the document service system 100. For example, in a casewhere another document element d is opened on the screen (copy and pasteof the document elements d to c is not performed) while the user isediting a document element c opened on the screen, the device determinesthat the document element c has a relation of “reference” to thedocument element d.

Exemplary Embodiment of Association Between Document Elements

In the above-described example, descriptions are made focusing on amethod of determining the type of relation based on the similaritybetween contents of the document elements, as a method of associatingthe document elements (that is, determining the type of relation betweenthe two document elements) with each other.

Here, even in a case where the contents of the document elements are notsimilar, in a case where one of the document elements includes adescription representing the relation with the other document element,the document elements have a relation corresponding to the description.Detection of a relation indicated by the description representing such arelation only by the similarity between the contents of the documentelements is not possible.

Thus, in the following exemplary embodiment, a method of associatingdocument elements with each other based on a description which isincluded in the document element and indicates a relation to anotherdocument element will be described.

An outline of such a method will be described with reference to FIG. 17.In the example illustrated in FIG. 17, a certain document element 510 ina certain document 500 includes a description 512 representing arelation to another document element. The description 512 has textcontents of “please refer to “1. standard power consumption test device”in “test environment list” for the test environment”. The text contentincludes information for specifying a document element 522 as a relationdestination of the document element 510 and a phrase representing therelation.

The information for specifying the document element 522 as the relationdestination includes “test environment list” which is the document nameof a document 520 including the document element 522 and “1. standardpower consumption test device” which is the name of the document element522. The name of the document element is, for example, the heading ofthe document element. The name of the document element 522 is referredto as an element name below. The phrase representing the relation in thedocument element 510 is the phrase “please refer to”. In the example,each of the document name and the element name is described in a formsurrounded by a predetermined code.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 17, the document name is described inaccordance with a rule of being enclosed by square brackets ([ ]) beforeand after the document name, and the element name is described inaccordance with a rule of being enclosed brackets (“ ”) before and afterthe element name. The notation rules of the document name and theelement name are just examples. For example, another notation rules inwhich the document name and the element name are written in typefaceswhich are different from the typeface of the ground sentence and aredifferent from each other may be used. The notation rules for thedocument name and the element name may not be necessarily unified. Forexample, the notation rule may be different for each document managementsystem such as the design document management system 10 and the companyrule management system 20.

An element ID “1235456” is assumed to be embedded in the documentelement 510.

The document service system 100 performs extraction processing 402 forextracting a description and the like representing a relation to anotherdocument element among document elements. From the document element 510,a description 512 representing a relation to another document element isdetected by the extraction processing 402, and “test environment list”which is the related document name included in the description 512, “1.standard power consumption test device” which is the related elementname, and “please refer to” which is a phrase representing the relationare extracted.

In the extraction processing 402, for example, natural language analysisis performed on text data of the document element, and thus a phraserepresenting a relation is obtained from the text data. For example, aphrase including a word which means a relation to another documentelement such as “refer to”, “cite”, “based on”, and “in accordance with”and has a positive meaning is detected as the phrase representing therelation by the natural language analysis. In the extraction processing402, a text string satisfying the notation rule for the document nameand the element name is searched in a sentence identical to the phraserepresenting the relation or is searched from the vicinity of thephrase. In this manner, the document name and the element name as arelation destination, which function as the object of the phrase areobtained. In a case where a set of a phrase representing a relation, andthe related document name and the related element name serving as theobject of the phase, is found, a description (for example, sentence)including such a set is the description representing the relation toanother document element. In the example illustrated in FIG. 17, theextraction processing 402 extracts, in particular, the related documentname, the related element name, and the phrase representing the relationfrom the description.

There is a document element which does not include a descriptionrepresenting a relation to another document element, and the informationis not extracted from such a document element.

In the extraction processing 402, “1235456” being the element ID of thedocument element 510 is extracted as a relation source element ID.

The extracted set of the related document name, the related elementname, and the phrase representing the relation is input to the AI(artificial intelligence) 404. The AI 404 has already machine-learnedsuch that, in a case where a set of a related document name, a relatedelement name, and a phrase representing a relation is input, the type ofrelation corresponding to the set is obtained and output. The type ofrelation output by the AI 404 is the type of relation between thedocument element 510 as a relation source and a document element as arelation destination, which is specified by the related document nameand the related element name. The machine learning of the AI 404 isperformed, for example, in a manner that multiple pieces of learningdata including a set of a related document name, a related element name,and a phrase representing a relation, and the type of a relation areprepared, the set of the related document name, the related elementname, and the phrase representing a relation is given to the AI 404 asinput data, and the type of relation is given to the AI 404 as teacherdata.

The AI 404 is built in the document service system 100 (see FIG. 1) orin a device that can communicate with the document service system 100. Amethod of mounting the AI is not particularly limited. Any known machinelearning method such as a regression method (for example, a neuralnetwork and a support vector machine), or a method using a tree such asa decision tree may be used. The AI may be configured as software,configured as a hardware circuit, or configured as a combination of ahardware circuit and software.

In the example of FIG. 17, the AI 404 outputs the type of relation of“reference” in response to an input of “test environment list” as therelated document name, “1. standard power consumption test device” asthe related element name, and “please refer to” as the phraserepresenting the relation.

The types of relation between document elements include, for example,citation, being similar, and reference. The type of relation may befreely defined by the user of the system. A case where there is norelation between document elements may be defined as one of the types ofrelation (for example, type named “irrelevance”) between documentelements.

In association processing 406 performed by the document service system100, the relation source element ID extracted in the extractionprocessing 402 and the element ID of a document element as a relationdestination represented by the related document name and the relatedelement name are associated with the type of relation obtained by the AI404. For this association, in relation destination specifying processing408, a document element corresponding to a combination of a relationsource document name and a relation source element name is obtained froma document management system group of the design document managementsystem 10, the company rule management system 20, and the law managementsystem 60, and the like. In the example illustrated in FIG. 17, thedocument element 522 in the document 520 is specified as the documentelement as the relation destination, by the relation destinationspecifying processing 408.

In the association processing 406, “reference” as the type of relationwith respect to the combination of “1235456” as the relation sourceelement ID and “2354567” which is an element ID of a document element asthe specified relation destination is registered for the relationinformation (see FIG. 8) in the database.

Next, an example of a procedure of the association processing betweendocument elements based on a description representing a relation toanother document element will be described with reference to FIG. 18.The procedure illustrated in FIG. 18 may be performed, for example,after S17 and S26 of the procedure in FIG. 4.

In the procedure of FIG. 18, firstly, the processor 102 of the documentservice system 100 acquires one document element in an interesteddocument, and sets the acquired document element as an interestedelement (S70). Then, the processor 102 performs the extractionprocessing 402 to search for a set of a related document name, a relatedelement name, and a phrase representing a relation from the interestedelement (S72) and to determine whether or not such a set is found (S74).In a case where such a set is not found in S74, the processing for theinterested element is ended.

In a case where such a set is found, the processor 102 inputs the set ofthe related document name, the related element name, and the phraserepresenting the relation to the machine-learned AI 404. In response tothe input, the AI 404 outputs the type of relation corresponding to theset (S76). The processor 102 performs the relation destinationspecifying processing 408 to specify a document element having therelated element name, in a document having the related document name(S78). For example, in a case where the element name of each documentelement (for example, the heading of the document element) and thedocument name of a document including the document element areregistered in the database of the document service system 100, such adocument element may be specified by searching the database. In S78, aplurality of document elements having the related element name in thedocument having the related document name may be specified.

The processor 102 performs the association processing 406 to set thetype of relation obtained from the AI 404 in S76, as the type ofrelation of the combination of the interested element and the relatedelement specified in S78, in the relation information on the database(S79). In a case where a plurality of document elements are specified inS78, the type of the relation is set for the plurality of documentelements. At a time point immediately before S79 is performed, the typeof relation obtained from the content similarity in the procedure ofFIG. 4 is registered in the relation information, as the type ofrelation between the interested element and the related element. In S79,the AI 404 overwrites the type of relation obtained from the descriptionof the interested element, which represents a relation to anotherdocument element, to the value of the registered type of relation.

In the example described with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18, the AI 404learns a combination of a set of a related document name, a relatedelement name, and a phrase representing a relation, and the type ofrelation, which are included in multiple pieces of learning data. Asdescribed above, the type of relation corresponding to the relateddocument name, the related element name, and the phrase representing therelation is obtained by using the learned AI 404.

The above description is made on the assumption that the procedure inFIG. 18 is performed after S17 and S26 of the procedure in FIG. 4, butthis is just an example. Instead, designation of an interested elementmay be received from a user, and the procedure in FIG. 18 may beperformed on the interested element. This is similarly applied to thefollowing modification example.

Next, a modification example of the method of associating documentelement with each other will be described with reference to FIG. 19.

In the modification example, the type of relation between documentelements is determined in consideration of not only the descriptionrepresenting the relation to another document elements among documentelements, but also the attributes of the document elements.

In one example, the attribute of a document including the documentelement is directly used as the attribute of the document element usedas a material for determining the type of relation between the documentelements. The attributes of a document, which are used as the attributesof the document element include a storage location, a creator, thecreation date and time, the last updater, the update date and time, theacquisition date and time, a search tag assigned to the document by aperson, and the like.

An attribute unique to a document element may be used as the materialfor determining a relation between document elements. For example, in acase of a system that manages the history of creation or update for eachdocument element, attributes such as a creator, the creation date andtime, the update date and time, and the last updater of the documentelement may be recorded.

Regarding the attribute used to determine the relation, one type or acombination of a plurality of types (for example, combination of astorage location and a creator) may be provided.

In the example of FIG. 19, the processor 102 finds out the description542 representing the relation to another document element in thedocument element 540 in the document 530 by the extraction processing402. Then, the processor extracts the related document name, the relatedelement name, and the phrase representing the relation from the founddescription 542. In the example illustrated in FIG. 19, “company ruledocument” as the related document name, “1. standard power consumption”as the related element name, and “in accordance with” as the phraserepresenting the relation are extracted.

In the example, the “company rule document” and “1. standard powerconsumption” in the document element 540 are described without using aspecific notation rule representing the document name or the like. Thus,distinguishment from a ground sentence is not possible. In such a case,for example, the processor 102 examines whether a text stringcorresponding to the document name and the element name stored in thedatabase is in the document element 540. In a case where a text stringcorresponding to the document name and a text string corresponding tothe element name in the database is provided at a part (for example,place corresponding to the object) indicating a target of the phraserepresenting the relation in the document element 540, the text stringsrefer to the related document name and the related element name. A casewhere the document name of the acquired document and the element name ofa document element included in the document are associated with eachother and are stored in the database for each acquired document may beconsidered. In this case, the processor 102 examines whether or not aset of a document name and an element name of a document elementincluded in a document indicated by the document name is provided in thedocument element 540. Ina case where such a set is found, the processorextracts the set as the related document name and the related elementname.

In the extraction processing 402, the attribute of the document element540 is also extracted. In the example illustrated in FIG. 19, a URLindicating the storage location of the document element 540 is extractedas the attribute of the document element 540. In FIG. 19, the attributeis indicated as “relation source storage location”.

The processor 102 performs the relation destination specifyingprocessing 408 to specify a document element corresponding to thecombination of the related document name and the related element name,from the document management system group of the design documentmanagement system 10 and the like. In the example illustrated in FIG.19, a document element 552 in a document 550 is specified as thedocument element as the relation destination, by the relationdestination specifying processing 408. In a case where an element ID ofa document element is stored in the database in association with the setof a document name and an element name of the document element in adocument indicated by the document name, the element ID of a documentelement corresponding to the combination of the related document nameand the related element name is specified by the extraction processing402. In this case, the document element corresponding to the combinationof the related document name and the related element name is notrequired to be specified by the relation destination specifyingprocessing 408 again.

In the relation destination specifying processing 408, the attribute ofthe document element specified as the relation destination is acquired.In the example illustrated in FIG. 19, as the attribute of the documentelement 552, a URL indicating the storage location of the documentelement 552 is extracted as “relation destination storage location”.

The processor 102 inputs the related document name, the related elementname, the phrase representing the relation, and the attributes (in theexample illustrated in FIG. 19, relation source storage location andrelation destination storage location) of the document elements as therelation source and the relation destination, to the AI 404 a. In a casewhere a set of the related document name, the related element name, thephrase representing the relation, and the attributes of the documentelements as the relation source and the relation destination is input,the AI 404 a completes machine learning to obtain and output the type ofrelation corresponding to the set. The machine learning of the AI 404 ais performed in a manner that the set of the related document name, therelated element name, the phrase representing the relation, and theattributes of the document elements as the relation source and therelation destination is given to the AI 404 a as input data, and thetype of relation corresponding to the set is given to the AI 404 a asteacher data.

In the example of FIG. 19, the AI 404 a outputs the type of relation of“reference” in response to the input of a set of “company rule document”as the related document name, “1. standard power consumption” as therelated element name, “in accordance with” as the phrase representing arelation, “https://example.com/abc/ . . . ” as the relation sourcestorage location, and “https://example.com/efg/ . . . ” as the relationdestination storage location.

In the association processing 406, “reference” as the type of relationwith respect to the combination of “345678” as the relation sourceelement ID and “456789” as the related element ID is registered for therelation information in the database.

In the example of FIG. 19, the storage location attribute of thedocument element is used for the determination, but an attribute otherthan the storage location attribute may be used. A plurality ofattributes of the document element may be used for the determination.

Next, a procedure of the association processing corresponding to theexample of FIG. 19 will be described with reference to FIG. 20. Theprocedure illustrated in FIG. 20 is performed, for example, after S17and S26 of the procedure illustrated in FIG. 4.

In the procedure, firstly, the processor 102 of the document servicesystem 100 acquires one document element in an interested document, andsets the acquired document element as an interested element (S70). Then,the processor 102 performs the extraction processing 402 to acquire theattribute of the interested element (S71). Then, the processor 102searches for a set of a related document name, a related element name,and a phrase representing a relation from the interested element (S72)and determines whether or not such a set is found (S74). In a case wheresuch a set is not found in S74, the processing for the interestedelement is ended.

In a case where such a set is found, the processor 102 specifies adocument element having the related element name, in a document havingthe related document name (S80). In S80, a plurality of documentelements satisfying the condition may be found. The processor 102performs the processes of S82 to S86 for each document element (that is,the related element) specified in S80.

That is, the processor 102 acquires the attribute of the related element(S82). The processor 102 inputs a set of the related document name, therelated element name, the phrase indicating a relation, and theattribute of document elements as the relation source and the relationdestination, to the machine-learned AI 404 a. In response to the input,the AI 404 a outputs the type of relation corresponding to the set(S84). The processor 102 performs the association processing 406 to setthe type of relation obtained from the AI 404 a in S84, as the type ofrelation of the combination of the interested element and the relatedelement, in the relation information on the database (S86).

As described above, in the modification example described with referenceto FIGS. 19 and 20, the type of relation between document elements isdetermined in consideration of not only the information on thedescription representing the relation between the interested documentelement and another document element, but also the attributes of the twodocument elements. For this reason, the type of relation can be obtainedwith validity higher than validity in a case where the attributes of thedocument elements are not considered. For example, in the example ofFIG. 19, the AI 404 a that has learned in consideration of the storagelocation attributes of the document elements as the relation source andthe relation destination is used. Thus, in a case where a plurality ofrelated elements corresponding to the set of the related document nameand the related element name are provided, the type of relation can beset to be stronger for the related element having a storage locationwhich has a specific relation with the storage location of theinterested element among the related elements, than for the relatedelement having a storage location which does not have a specificrelation with the interested element. For example, this is realized in amanner that the AI 404 a is caused to learn a learning data group inwhich the related document name, the related element name, and thephrase representing the relation are identical, but the storagelocations of the document elements as the relation source and therelation destination and the type of relation as teacher data aredifferent. In the learning data group, the type of relation included inlearning data in which the storage locations of document elements as therelation source and the relation destination have a specific relationshows a stronger relation than the type of relation included in learningdata in which the storage locations do not have the specific relation.Examples of the specific relation in this case include a relation that“the storage locations of the relation source and the relationdestination are in the identical document management system”, and arelation that “the relation source is provided in the company rulemanagement system 20, and the relation destination is provided in thelaw management system 60”.

In the modification example of FIGS. 19 and 20, the attributes of boththe two document elements are considered for determining the type ofrelation between the interested element and the related element, butthis is just an example. As another example, for the determination, amethod of considering the attribute of the interested element, but notconsidering the attribute of the related element, or a method ofconsidering the attribute of the related element, but not consideringthe attribute of the interested element may be used.

Hitherto, the exemplary embodiment and the modification example ofdetermining the type of relation between two document elements based onthe description representing the relation to one document element in theother document element are described. The exemplary embodiment and themodification example are just examples.

In the above-described exemplary embodiment and the like, the processor102 extracts the related document name, the relation source elementname, and the phrase indicating the relation from the document element,and inputs the extracted data to the AI 404 or 404 a. However, this isjust an example. Alternatively, the processor 102 may input thedescription (for example, the description 512 in FIG. 17) itselfrepresenting the relation to another document element in the documentelement, to the AI 404 or 404 a. The description includes the relateddocument name, the relation source element name, and the phraserepresenting the relation. In the example, the AI 404 or 404 a is causedto learn using multiple pieces of learning data including a descriptionrepresenting a relation to another document element and the type ofrelation corresponding to the description. The type of relation can bedetermined from the description representing the relation to anotherdocument element, by using the learned AI 404 or 404 a.

In the above-described exemplary embodiment and the like, the elementname of a document element as the relation destination and the documentname of a document to which the document element as the relationdestination belongs are extracted, as the information for specifying thedocument element as the relation destination, which is related toanother document element, from this document element. However, this isalso just an example. For example, in the document element, theinformation for specifying the document element as the relationdestination may be included in a form other than the set of the documentname and the element name, for example, in a form of a URL indicatingthe storage location of the related destination document element, anelement ID, or the like. In this case, the processor 102 may extract theURL and the element ID as the information indicating the documentelement as the relation destination, instead of the related documentname and the related element name.

In the exemplary embodiment described above, the document element is anelement that forms a document. Here, there may be a document in a largerunit having individual documents managed by the document managementsystem as constituent elements. In this case, the former individualdocument is a document element for the latter large unit document. Forexample, in a case where a hypertext configured with a plurality ofdocuments linked by hyperlinks is regarded as a document of a largeunit, the plurality of documents correspond to document elements in acase of being viewed from the hypertext.

The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention has been provided for the purposes of illustration anddescription. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modificationsand variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and its practical applications, therebyenabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited tothe particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of theinvention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing apparatus comprising: aprocessor configured to extract a description including a phraseindicating a relation with a second document element from a firstdocument element, and generate relation information corresponding toinformation on the description extracted from the first documentelement, by an AI which has learned, in advance, by machine learning togenerate the relation information indicating a relation between thefirst document element and the second document element from theinformation on the description.
 2. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the AI has learned, in advance, by machinelearning to generate the relation information from a combination of theinformation on the description and an attribute of the first documentelement or the second document element, and the processor is configuredto acquire the attribute of the first document element, and generate therelation information corresponding to the combination of the informationon the description extracted from the first document element and theattribute of the first document element or the second document element,by using the AI.
 3. The information processing apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the AI has learned, in advance, by machine learning togenerate the relation information from a combination of the informationon the description, the attribute of the first document element, and theattribute of the second document element, and the processor isconfigured to acquire the attribute of the first document element andthe attribute of the second document element, and generate the relationinformation corresponding to the combination of the information on thedescription extracted from the first document element, the attribute ofthe first document element, and the attribute of the second documentelement, by using the AI.
 4. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the AI has learned, in advance, by machinelearning to generate the relation information from a combination of thephrase included in the description and specifying information forspecifying the second document element, and the processor is configuredto extract the phrase and the specifying information from the firstdocument element, and generate the relation information corresponding toa combination of the phrase and the specifying information, by using theAI.
 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the processor is configured to associate the first documentelement with the second document element different from the firstdocument element by at least one type of relation among a plurality oftypes of relations, and perform processing corresponding to the type ofrelation between the first document element and the second documentelement, on the second document element in a case where the firstdocument element is changed.
 6. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to associatethe first document element with the second document element differentfrom the first document element by at least one type of relation among aplurality of types of relations, and perform processing corresponding tothe type of relation between the first document element and the seconddocument element, on the second document element in a case where thefirst document element is changed.
 7. The information processingapparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processor is configured toassociate the first document element with the second document elementdifferent from the first document element by at least one type ofrelation among a plurality of types of relations, and perform processingcorresponding to the type of relation between the first document elementand the second document element, on the second document element in acase where the first document element is changed.
 8. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the processor isconfigured to associate the first document element with the seconddocument element different from the first document element by at leastone type of relation among a plurality of types of relations, andperform processing corresponding to the type of relation between thefirst document element and the second document element, on the seconddocument element in a case where the first document element is changed.9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein,in a case where the relation between the first document element and thesecond document element is a first type of relation in which asimilarity between the first document element and the second documentelement is equal to or greater than a first predetermined thresholdvalue which is greater than 0, the processing is notification processingof notifying a participant of the second document element that the firstdocument element is changed.
 10. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 6, wherein, in a case where the relation between thefirst document element and the second document element is a first typeof relation in which a similarity between the first document element andthe second document element is equal to or greater than a firstpredetermined threshold value which is greater than 0, the processing isnotification processing of notifying a participant of the seconddocument element that the first document element is changed.
 11. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, in acase where the relation between the first document element and thesecond document element is a first type of relation in which asimilarity between the first document element and the second documentelement is equal to or greater than a first predetermined thresholdvalue which is greater than 0, the processing is notification processingof notifying a participant of the second document element that the firstdocument element is changed.
 12. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 8, wherein, in a case where the relation between thefirst document element and the second document element is a first typeof relation in which a similarity between the first document element andthe second document element is equal to or greater than a firstpredetermined threshold value which is greater than 0, the processing isnotification processing of notifying a participant of the seconddocument element that the first document element is changed.
 13. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, in acase where the relation between the first document element and thesecond document element is a second type of relation, the processing isprocessing of copying the changed first document element to the seconddocument element, and the second type of relation is a relation in whicha similarity between the first document element and the second documentelement is equal to or greater than a second threshold value being aminimum value of the similarity, by which the first document element andthe second document element are considered to be identical to eachother.
 14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6,wherein, in a case where the relation between the first document elementand the second document element is a second type of relation, theprocessing is processing of copying the changed first document elementto the second document element, and the second type of relation is arelation in which a similarity between the first document element andthe second document element is equal to or greater than a secondthreshold value being a minimum value of the similarity, by which thefirst document element and the second document element are considered tobe identical to each other.
 15. The information processing apparatusaccording to claim 7, wherein, in a case where the relation between thefirst document element and the second document element is a second typeof relation, the processing is processing of copying the changed firstdocument element to the second document element, and the second type ofrelation is a relation in which a similarity between the first documentelement and the second document element is equal to or greater than asecond threshold value being a minimum value of the similarity, by whichthe first document element and the second document element areconsidered to be identical to each other.
 16. The information processingapparatus according to claim 8, wherein, in a case where the relationbetween the first document element and the second document element is asecond type of relation, the processing is processing of copying thechanged first document element to the second document element, and thesecond type of relation is a relation in which a similarity between thefirst document element and the second document element is equal to orgreater than a second threshold value being a minimum value of thesimilarity, by which the first document element and the second documentelement are considered to be identical to each other.
 17. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein theprocessing is processing in which, on a display screen showing arelation between the changed first document element and one or moresecond document elements associated with the first document element,each of the one or more second document elements is displayed in adisplay mode corresponding to the type of the relation between thesecond document element and the first document element.
 18. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein theprocessing is processing in which, on a display screen showing arelation between the changed first document element and one or moresecond document elements associated with the first document element,each of the one or more second document elements is displayed in adisplay mode corresponding to the type of the relation between thesecond document element and the first document element.
 19. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein theprocessing is processing in which, on a display screen showing arelation between the changed first document element and one or moresecond document elements associated with the first document element,each of the one or more second document elements is displayed in adisplay mode corresponding to the type of the relation between thesecond document element and the first document element.
 20. Anon-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing acomputer to perform extracting a description including a phraseindicating a relation with a second document element from a firstdocument element; and generating relation information corresponding toinformation on the description extracted from the first documentelement, by an AI which has learned, in advance, by machine learning togenerate the relation information indicating a relation between thefirst document element and the second document element from theinformation on the description.